Sundown Poetry Series brings talent, community and culture

The annual Sundown Poetry Series kicked off its 44th season on May 28 with a reading from poet and creative writing teacher Danielle DeTiberus.

And what better way to showcase a teacher and her best work than by shedding light on two rising stars in the poetry world — who also happen to be her students? Well, that’s exactly what DeTiberus did at Washington Square Park last Tuesday.

As the bell struck at 6 p.m. and the sun began to set, cooling down the 85-degree heat and humidity, program coordinator Ed Gold first introduced Charleston School of the Arts student and poet Evan Sandifer, who provided three offerings from their published debut book, Body Mechanics. Sandifer also received a 2023 Kenyon Review runner-up placement for their poem “Because I Am Young, Stubborn and Covered in Skin.”

Following Sandifer was Pushcart Prize nominee Vasantha Sambamurti, who described DeTiberus as her “favorite teacher who was never actually my teacher.”

Sambamurti started off her set reciting “For the Dead Among Us” by the Palestinian-American poet Lisa Suhair Majaj. Sambamurti said she had been troubled by the recent events occurring in Palestine and wanted to pay her respects. She dedicated the rest of her set to her “namesake,” reciting two pieces by her mother before reading two pieces of her own, including “Little Critters.” Sambamurti is the editor of Transition Magazine, based at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

Then it was time for the main event. Gold gave a warm and decorative introduction to DeTiberus, who, in similar fashion to her pseudo-student Sambamurti, began her set with a poem by a Palestinian writer, the late Refaat Alareer’s “If I Must Die.” DeTiberus, a Black Lawrence Press 2018 Hudson Prize finalist and recipient of the Carrie McCray Nickens Fellowship, showcased a range of her poetry following the themes of hope and teaching. Her poems, including “Selection Pressures,” spanned her experiences during the height of the pandemic to stories about abortion, her recent time in her garden and inspiration from TikTok.

Many supporters attended DeTiberus’s post-reading reception at Buxton Books, including fellow poet Susan Finch Stevens. “I appreciate the work she’s done for the Poetry Society of South Carolina and was looking forward to hearing her read,” said Stevens, who has also read in the Sundown Poetry Series. “It was exciting to hear some students were reading, too – they’re always just so amazing. … It was nice to hear three very different, strong voices.”

A series with a rich history of fellowship

Frances Pearce said she has been attending the series for many of its seasons and iterations, following it from the Dock Street Theatre to the Gibbes Museum of Art and now to its second year at Washington Square Park.

“I started coming to the series around 1992, the year James Tate won the Pulitzer Prize and he was a featured poet that year,” Pearce said. She has also had the opportunity to read in the series and comes to at least one reading each year. “It’s wonderful because there’s usually at least a couple locals and people I know, and it’s fun to support them and see friends,” she said.

The Sundown series, which began in 1979, continued May 30 with Walterboro native Joey Tucker, also known as “Mr. Enlightenment.” A teacher, author and spoken-word poet, Tucker recently released a collection of short poems titled “Flicker Poetry,” tying in to his “Mr. Enlightenment” persona. Series co-coordinator Katherine Williams introduced Tucker to the audience at 6:02 p.m., as the bells in the park were still ringing less than an hour after national news broke about former President Donald Trump’s being convicted of 34 felonies.

“The sound of the bells is so thrilling in this particular moment in history, is it not?” Williams said to an audience that directly faced the front of the park’s George Washington statue, figuratively allowing the nation’s first president to look on not only at the evening’s event but also at history unfolding. Williams then said Tucker, who became hooked after taking a poetry class his senior year of high school, went on to sell what she called an almost unheard-of 150 copies of his first chapbook, 2009’s “Walletz and Pursez.”

“The power of words and the power of fellowship we birth when we consider words together and what they mean … we’re about more than light entertainment here at Sundown,” Williams said. And with that “Mr. Enlightenment” took the stand.

Tucker’s presentation began by covering the themes of time and of course his North Star, light. “When I do my poetry, I like to call it the light show,” Tucker said before beginning his set. He continued with a spoken-word set dedicated to his love of hip-hop and rap music.

“I’ve been living in Charleston for three years and come to the festival as it comes into town, and I really appreciated Joey’s performance,” said Tucker’s friend Flavio Carpio at the post-reading reception at Buxton Books.

Carpio’s partner, Sarah Lawless, also enjoyed his offerings. “I haven’t been to one of these, but Flavio knows Joey, so we came here to give him some local support,” she said. “And he was great and very inspiring.”

After 44 seasons, the Sundown Poetry Series is still bringing in the crowds and exceptional talent. Other poets who presented this past week included Jessica K. Hylton on May 29 and Cheryl Boyce-Taylor on May 31.

The series continues with Lola Haskins on June 4, Ray McManus on June 5 and Regina YC Garcia on June 6 before concluding June 7 with Katherine Williams in Washington Square Park.

Rayshaun Sandlin is an arts journalism and communications graduate of S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.